POLITICAL HISTORY 



before that date the disturbed state of the north owing to the Scottish wars 

 had necessitated a special form of government which after the Pilgrimage of 

 Grace developed into the Council of the North. The first seeds of this rival 

 power which was to overshadow the Palatinate were sown in 1522, when a 

 royal lieutenant was sent down to the north. In 1525 Henry duke of 

 Richmond was appointed the king's lieutenant-general north of the Trent, 

 and he and his council governed the northern counties, the council including 

 Sir William Bulmer, the sheriff, and William Franklyn, the chancellor of 

 the Palatinate. Although the council did not hesitate to infringe the privileges 

 of the franchise by sitting as justices of assize and summoning witnesses before 

 them, Ruthall (1509—23) and Wolsey (1523—9), who successively filled 

 the see during this period, were too ardent supporters of the centralizing 

 policy of the Tudors to care much about the curtailment of the rights of the 

 Palatinate, which the latter never visited and from which the former was fre- 

 quently absent."' In the beginning of 1536 was passed 'an acte for recon- 

 tynuyng of certayne liberties and franchises heretofore taken from the Crown.' "^ 

 Although not specifically directed against Durham it was the only county 

 palatine left outstanding in the hands of a subject. By this Act all judicial 

 appointments were to be made by the king, who alone would pardon offences. 

 In addition all writs and other legal processes were to run in the name of the 

 king. Shortly it may be stated that by the Act, whilst all the Palatinate 

 privileges were preserved, the sanction proceeds from the king and not from 

 the bishop."* 



Firmly wedded as the people of Durham were to the old religion, the 

 changes wrought by the Reformation could not be carried out in the Palatinate 

 without causing grave discontent, even though a man like Tunstall was deputed 

 to carry them out."' Twice the flame of rebellion burst forth, first in 1536 

 and again in i 569. 



It is somewhat difficult to estimate the part played by the men of the 

 bishopric in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The lower classes appear to have 

 enthusiastically supported the rising in October, 1536, but such of the upper 

 classes as joined seem in certain cases, including that of Lord Lumley, to 

 have acted under compulsion.^*" Fortunately for the government the earl of 

 Westmorland remained loyal and free ' from the infection of their traitorous 

 poison.' '" Gathering together at Spennymoor, some seven miles south-west 

 of Durham, the rebels of the Palatinate marched with the banner of St. Cuth- 

 bert south to Pontefract, where they joined the main body.^*' Tunstall, 

 alarmed for his safety, fled to Norham, whilst the earl of Westmorland seems 

 to have gone to London, although he is one of the representatives of the 



'" For the Council of the North, see Lapsley, op. cit. 259 ; Coke, Inst, iv, 245. 



'" Stat. 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 19. 



'" It should be noted that the Act was passed early in 1536, and has therefore no connexion with the 

 rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, which did not take place till October in th.it year ; see Lapsley, 

 op. cit. 197. 



179 Qf Tunstall Lord Acton wrote {Quarterly Rev. cxliii, 23) : 'He is the only Englishman whose 

 public life extended through all the ch.inges of religion, from the publication of the Theses to the Act 

 of Uniformity. The love and admiration of his greatest contemporaries, the persecution which he endured 

 under Edward, his tolerance under Mary, have preserved his name in honour. Yet we may suspect that 

 a want of generous and definite conviction had something to do with the moderation which is the mark 

 of his career.' 



^^Dkt. Nat. Biog. sub 'Lumley' ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), 29. 



"'i. and P. Hen. Fill, xl, 1003. '»- Ibid, xii (i), 29. 



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